Former PSL star Larry Sanders' basketball camp is about giving back and achieving

ERIC HASERT/TREASURE COAST NEWSAPERS
Larry Sanders, 22, former Port St. Lucie basketball star turned NBA player, gestures while greeting the kids attending his basketball camp at Port St. Lucie High School gym on Tuesday. Sanders graduated from Port St. Lucie High School in 2007 and was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the 2010 draft. "For the kids, give the kids somewhere to go be able to give back and contribute to my community," Saunders said about his camp for boys and girls ages 7-14.

ERIC HASERT/TREASURE COAST NEWSAPERS
NBA star Larry Sanders, shares a hug with Barbara Evans, a friend and neighbor from years ago in in Fort Pierce, after sharing a greeting at Sander's basketball camp inside the Port St. Lucie High School gym on Tuesday. Evans once took Saunders and other kids to a Miami Heat basketball game when he was in high school. "This is my baby right here, and I told him he was going to be playing there one day," Evans said. "And now my baby is playing, That makes me want to cry, to see my baby playing now,"

PORT ST. LUCIE — Larry Sanders says he has been blessed with many gifts and now he's giving back with his presence.

Sanders is a Port St. Lucie High School graduate who played college basketball at Virginia Commonwealth and was drafted in the first round of the 2010 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks.

This week, he has returned to the high school gym where his career started and is teaching boys and girls, ages 6 to 14, basketball fundamentals — but, more importantly, that they, too, can reach their dreams.

"There is hope," he said Tuesday during a break at the Larry Sanders Basketball Camp. "I hope that when kids see me, they know my story and know I'm from where they are from. ... I want them to know I'm a real person and I'm just like them.

"And I don't want to say it, I want to show them."

It didn't take long for Sanders to show his basketball ability during a lunchtime pick-up game at center court. Young eyes watched, barely blinking. Oohhs and aahhs bellowed from every corner of the gym as Sanders, a 6-foot-11 forward/center who played in 60 of the Bucks' 82 games last season, alternated between alley-oops and reverse dunks, all done with ease.

The exhibition quickly stopped when current Port St. Lucie boys basketball coach Kareem Rodriguez picked up a megaphone and sent campers back to work with area coaches — including former PSL coach John Picchiarini — and local referees.

"It's for the kids, so when they leave on Friday they've learned something about basketball," Rodriguez said. "By Thursday, when they scrimmage, they'll understand how to play the game and hopefully become a better player."

One of the 66 campers, Dayshawn Holmes, traveled from the Bronx, N.Y., to learn from Sanders, a Fort Pierce native.

"He was from here and inspired me," the 12-year-old Holmes said about coming to the camp. "They are teaching us new things. The post moves really help me. I'm short, so it helps me with big people."

Added 13 year-old Rachel Raynor, from Port St. Lucie, "Meeting Larry is pretty cool, he's really tall. Most of the camps that I go to, they don't have as many teachers like this and specialized teachers like this. So I get more out of it."

Sanders praised Rodriguez for organizing the first camp and said he is committed to an annual summer event.

"There isn't a lot of stuff for kids now and, if I can, I want to start something," Sanders said. "Kids have to pay to play sports and there is no transportation. I think that if I had to pay and I had no transportation, I wouldn't be where I am now.

"That's where my heart is. This is something I want to do every year and want to expand with more kids and more coaches."